A Kingdom Lost

by Barbara Ann Wright

  “Not polite to whisper,” Fury added.

  “Fiend king, corpse Fiends,” Scarra said. “Everyone’s got a Fiend coming out of her ass. Now we have ally Fiends? You going to run up and paint them before each fight so we know which ones to beat the shit out of?”

  Starbride had to smile at Scarra’s selective swearing. “This is Maia Nar Umbriel, King Einrich’s niece, and the Fiend king’s daughter.” She pointed at Hugo. “Hugo is his son and Maia’s half-brother.”

  Hugo waved weakly. Scarra’s mouth hung open. Fury studied them in silence.

  Scarra finally nudged Pennynail with her foot. “Who are you? The queen?”

  He saluted her, and Starbride had to hold in a laugh.

  “Well, I’ll be dipped in sh—” Scarra glanced at all of them again. “Never mind.”

  “I thought I recognized her,” Fury said. “If she’s really Einrich’s niece and an Umbriel and the Fiend king is her da, then the Fiend king is Einrich’s brother. But he only had one sib that the public knew about, the brother who died.”

  Scarra glanced at him as if he’d caught fire. “You’re in the wrong chapterhouse, brother.”

  “I’m a dyed-in-the-wool royalty watcher,” Fury said. “So, is the Fiend king a bastard or is he a corpse?”

  “Both,” Starbride said, “but not in the ways you’re thinking. He is the dead Prince Roland, come back to life. More and more people are going to be working that out.”

  “Back to life because of the Fiend, I’m guessing?” Fury asked.

  He was in the wrong chapterhouse. Starbride nodded.

  “So you kill them, but they don’t stay dead?” Scarra’s brow furrowed so hard it looked painful. “But then… How many are there, and if we can’t kill them…”

  “It’s a long story,” Starbride said, “and not all of it is relevant. I can promise you, though, if we stab the Fiend king enough, he will stay dead.”

  Fury cocked his head. “Is now when you ask us to keep this secret?”

  “That would be nice,” Starbride said, “if only to keep me from having to repeat myself.”

  He shut his eyes as if he could no longer be bothered to care.

  Scarra hadn’t lost her frown. “I’ll keep my gob shut, if that’s what you want, but Drive and Ruin probably noticed what was going on, too. You might have to repeat yourself at least once more.”

  Starbride nodded. She couldn’t hope for anything better. She’d have to tell Katya that she’d kept the Umbriels’ secrets as best she could.

  Shortly thereafter, Drive and Ruin returned with the mistress of the house. They introduced her as Lady Beatrice, a title that Starbride doubted.

  “My customers will be coming in soon,” Lady Beatrice said. “I can’t hide you forever.” She gave Scarra and Fury an up and down glance. “Unless you’re looking for work.” They both laughed.

  “Not today,” Starbride said. “Thank you for letting us take shelter here.”

  Lady Beatrice shrugged the gratitude away. “The strength house has sent good customers over the years, and my boys and girls can use all the endurance Best and Berth will bestow upon them.” She clapped Drive on the shoulder. “Still, time’s wasting.”

  The monks snuck out and headed for their home chapterhouse, promising to bring a horse and wagon. It would be less conspicuous than Pennynail or Starbride hurrying through the streets, especially carrying Maia. As afternoon approached, the monks returned. They disguised Maia in a pile of blankets and loaded her into the wagon. Starbride and Pennynail crouched beside her and tried to be as invisible as possible.

  “We can’t take her to the hideout,” Hugo said in Starbride’s ear.

  She looked at him sharply. “I’m not leaving her alone.”

  “Neither am I,” he said, “in case our father finds her again. But we can’t remove her pyramid, and the monks can. Besides, until she’s herself again…”

  “We can’t risk her knowing where we’re hiding,” Starbride finished. She patted his cheek. “When did you get so wise?”

  He only smiled. At the chapterhouse, they all decided to stay. Master Bernard and Claudius had returned to the hideout to continue puzzling over the trap-pyramid problem. The monks closed their doors to outsiders and posted guards on the lookout for trouble. They brought in a surgeon for Maia, and then there was nothing to do but wait.

  Ruin gave them a small room and two beds to share. Once they were behind closed doors, Pennynail pulled off his mask, becoming Freddie again.

  “Finally,” he said. “I feel like I’ve been wearing that thing for weeks. Did you send word to Master Bernard?”

  “Scarra volunteered to tell him we’re back.”

  Freddie gave her a lopsided grin. “She does a lot for us.”

  “Maybe she has a crush on you, Freddie.”

  “Yeah, right,” Hugo said. When they both stared at him, he turned red. “What?”

  “Thanks a lot.” Freddie sank down in one of the room’s two chairs. “Think I’m too old for her? I certainly feel it after the day we’ve had.”

  He reminded Starbride so much of Crowe that her breath hitched.

  “I was talking about the mask,” Hugo said, “not you. Who could love that mask?”

  “And without it?” Freddie glanced at Starbride. “He thinks I’m gorgeous.”

  “I never said that!”

  “He didn’t not say it.”

  “Enough,” Starbride said before they could continue, but she was glad no one was throwing punches. Given enough time, maybe they could even learn to like each other. In, say, a thousand years? She sat on one of the beds. “I’m tired, but I’m…happy.”

  “I’m glad we got her back,” Freddie said.

  “What is she like?” Hugo asked. “I mean, what was she like before…”

  “Young,” Freddie said. “And naive, but that was all right because she was so positive about everything. Even the job, the Order. She got depressed, but she bounced back. She loved life.”

  “And she loved Brutal,” Starbride added. “She blushed at the drop of a hat.” She glanced at Hugo, but he wasn’t looking at her. “She was eager and better at the job than she gave herself credit for.”

  “An incredible archer,” Freddie said. “I wonder why she never came after us with arrows when she was a Fiend.”

  “The Fiend likes getting its hands dirty,” Hugo mumbled. He still carried a suppression pyramid in his coat pocket, but Starbride needed to make him another necklace.

  “Maybe the part of her that was still Maia wouldn’t let the Fiend use something so special to her,” she said.

  He nodded slowly, and she could almost see his mind working. If there had been a part of her that was still Maia, there might be a part of Roland that was still a man, a father. Somehow, Starbride doubted it. Maia had most likely had her Fiend forced upon her. From what Starbride had heard of Roland’s near demise, he’d chosen to become a monster.

  As night fell, Starbride awoke at a soft knock. It cut Hugo off mid snore, and Starbride heard Pennynail rising from his pallet. He struck a match and lit a candle before he pulled his mask on. When he was covered, Starbride opened the door.

  Ruin had dark circles under his eyes, but they seemed as bright and alert as ever. “It’s finished.” He held out a scrap of cloth with a bloodstained pyramid in the middle.

  “She’s…?”

  “Alive and resting,” Ruin said. “They gave her a sleeping draught for the procedure, of course. She mustn’t move for a few days in order to keep her stitches closed. Lucky for all of us, this wasn’t deep.”

  Starbride took the cloth and its grisly prize. “When will she wake?”

  “Soon.”

  “Thank you, Ruin, for everything.”

  “You awakened us, dear lady. What can I give you that will ever cover that debt?”

  He left without an answer. Starbride turned back to Hugo and Freddie’s relieved faces before they trudged to Maia’s room.

&nbs
p; She seemed smaller and even paler. Someone had undone her hair, and tendrils of it floated in the draft from the window, just as Starbride remembered from when they’d first met. She laid her fingers on Maia’s forehead.

  Maia’s eyes fluttered open. Starbride braced herself. They’d removed the pyramid that let Maia’s Fiend loose, but she half expected Maia to fly at them, tearing for their throats.

  “Starbride?” Maia whispered.

  Starbride’s shoulders relaxed. She used a cloth to dribble some water on Maia’s lips. “You’re safe.”

  “What happened?”

  Starbride took a breath, not knowing how much to say, how much Maia would remember. She’d hoped Maia would forget her entire time as a Fiend, as the other Umbriels did when they changed. She could have tried to erase the memories, but she didn’t know how much she’d be forced to take. The entire thread of the Fiends? Of her father? Of the Order and Katya?

  Maia’s mouth slipped open, and her forehead drew down in pain. “Oh spirits, I….” She began to sob, a breathless, papery sound.

  Starbride sank down at her bedside. “It’s all right, Maia. You’re safe now.”

  “I…I…”

  “Gently,” Starbride said. Pennynail moved to her other side and held her hand. “You’ll tear your stitches.”

  “I want…to…”

  “No, it will be painful—”

  “I want to…die!”

  Starbride leaned over, trying to hold her, awkward as it was. The part of her mind that had learned caution at Marienne’s court warned her that she was putting herself in the perfect position for the Fiend to strike, but she couldn’t listen to that now, not with the pain raw and real in Maia’s voice.

  “It’s all over, Maia. He can’t hurt you now.”

  “I hurt you! I hurt…so many.”

  “It’s all right.”

  “It’s not all right!” Maia wailed. “I let him…I wanted… Oh, spirits, I…with Darren and Hilda!”

  Starbride bit her lip. She guessed that meant it was Maia who’d passed the Fiend to Darren and Lady Hilda, and there was only one way to do that: She had to have bedded them. It had probably been her first time or near enough, and it was with a man and woman she hated just to satisfy the whims of a monster, her father no less.

  Maia tried to curl into a ball. Pennynail held her down, but she started to thrash.

  “Someone help!” Hugo called.

  Footsteps hurried across the floor, and one of the monks pressed a cloth over Maia’s mouth. She quieted against the mattress, her eyelids fluttering until they stayed shut.

  “She cannot disturb herself like that,” the monk said.

  “That’s why we called for help,” Hugo shot back.

  The monk glared at him and then left them alone.

  “Regret will tear her to pieces,” Hugo said. “I should know.”

  “You weren’t in your right mind when you conspired with Roland, and neither was she,” Starbride said. “As soon as you were set loose from his claws, you realized your true self. We just have to help Maia do the same.”

  “What did she mean about Darren and Hilda?” Hugo asked.

  “Never mind that now. We need to get back to Master Bernard, gather some supplies. Dawnmother will tend to Maia better than we ever could. Maybe we can move Averie here, and Dawnmother and the monks can mind them both.”

  When they returned to the warehouse, Dawnmother heaved a sigh of relief. “There you are, Star.”

  “Did you get my message?”

  “Of course, and Master Bernard forbade me from going to you. He seemed to think it too risky.” She crossed her arms, and Starbride imagined that words between them must have been epic indeed. “We found a new pyradisté. Well, he found us, actually, and he needs to see you desperately. I don’t understand half of what he says, but perhaps you will.”

  Starbride frowned. “Has anyone confirmed that he is a pyradisté?”

  “We’re not idiots, Star. He is neither a mind-controlled assassin nor some poor soul fitted with an exploding pyramid.”

  “I’m sorry, Dawn. I’ll be jumping at shadows soon.”

  “And I’ll be snapping at them alongside you. Don’t let my bad temper hinder you. Come.”

  She led the way through the warehouse to an unkempt young man, barely a student by the looks of him, dressed in rags. He leapt from a chair at the sight of her.

  “At last!” he cried. “She won’t let me sleep!”

  Dawnmother half stepped between them.

  “What’s your name?” Starbride asked.

  “Dekken, but that’s not important. Since I’ve found you, she’ll let me sleep in peace.”

  “Who?”

  “He says a pyradisté haunts his dreams,” Dawnmother said, “demanding he find you.”

  “Adsnazi,” Dekken said. “Redtrue won’t let me forget that.”

  Starbride almost took a step back. She didn’t recognize the name, but it was Allusian, and how many Farradains had heard the word adsnazi? “But how—”

  He sank into his chair in a miserable heap. “She said since I don’t know how to dream walk, it’s hard to talk to me. She speaks in my dreams, calls to me, and it’s like I go out of my body to reach her. She told me how to make a pyramid so she could more easily speak. I never should have done it. She didn’t want to teach me, but she said the princess was extremely persuasive.”

  Starbride almost stepped forward and grabbed his collar. “The princess?”

  Dawnmother touched Dekken’s shoulder. “Perhaps you should start from the beginning, the right end of the road as Horse—”

  “Please don’t quote Horsestrong!” Dekken cried. “If I never hear of him again, it will be—”

  Starbride knelt in front of him. “If you tell me your story, and show me what you know, you might never speak to Redtrue again.”

  His eyes lit up as if he were a drowning man and she a passing ship. For days, he said, he’d had dreams of an Allusian girl. At first, he’d thought them nothing, but she always repeated the same story. Her name was Redtrue, she was an Allusian adsnazi—not a pyradisté—and she had a message from Princess Katyarianna to Princess Consort Starbride. The more real she seemed the more he’d been convinced he’d gone insane.

  Dekken had been living off scraps in alleys, striving to stay one step ahead of the corpse Fiends, afraid to trust anyone, terrified that the Fiend king seemed determined to kill every pyradisté in the kingdom. What snatches of sleep he’d been able to steal had been interrupted by this persistent woman who demanded she listen to him.

  Dekken laughed. “She didn’t force herself into my head, but she just called and called, and I couldn’t ignore her. All the hallucinations in the world, and I get the bossiest.”

  “Go on,” Starbride said. Clearly, Redtrue hadn’t been bossy enough because it had taken Dekken so long to craft a pyramid at her direction.

  Even then, when he presented it to Starbride, it was a sloppy piece of craftsmanship. He’d been working from a castoff bit of crystal he’d found near the academy. It was deeply flawed and cloudy, and Dekken said he only heard Redtrue a little better when he used it. Or maybe it was the fact that he focused on her that made her easier to hear. Instead of sleep, he fell into a trance when they spoke and was able to hear her and to somewhat feel her emotions.

  “Once,” Dekken said, “when she thought I wasn’t concentrating enough, I felt her anger, and then…it was like she slapped me.” He laughed, and the sound had the edge of hysteria. “I have no idea how she did it.”

  Starbride’s mind raced. She had no idea how Redtrue did any of it. She’d never heard of such a thing; she bet Master Bernard hadn’t either. So the adsnazi had more tricks than just pretty lights. She’d always put them far behind the Farradains in ability and power, but she might have to rethink that. “And the princess?”

  “With Redtrue near Allusia.”

  “Did she say anything else?”

  “That i
f you didn’t believe me, I was to call you Miss Meringue.”

  Starbride’s stomach lurched. She wanted to weep and cry out with joy at the same time. “Teach me how to use this pyramid, and I promise you a bed to yourself for as long as you want it.”

  His expression bloomed into hope before he straightened. Using the pyramid sounded easy in theory. Focus on it and fall in like any pyramid, but then the user had to focus outward, putting herself into a deep trance that left her open for contact. Starbride tried again and again. Dekken’s chin quivered as if he might weep when she tried a fourth time and still couldn’t manage it.

  “Please hurry,” he said. “She’ll come looking for me any time now.”

  Instead of focusing hard on the pyramid, Starbride thought of Katya, how good it would be to hear her, even through a proxy. Like with the academy pyramid, she seemed to fall through this one, as if opening her mind to a shared experience, offering a spectral hand and waiting to be grabbed. At last, she felt a glimmer.

  “You’re not that idiot,” an Allusian voice said in her mind. “Starbride?”

  “Yes,” she said, her excitement so palpable, she felt her trance slipping.

  “Relax!” the voice said. “Don’t fight.”

  “Are you Redtrue?”

  “Yes, and it’s nice to work with someone not completely inept. I was afraid Dekken was never going to get it.”

  “Well, he was exhausted and running for his life.”

  “We don’t have the luxury of pity, I’m afraid. One moment.”

  Starbride felt Redtrue’s attention stray, and for a few moments there was only silence. “Redtrue?”

  No one answered. Fear grabbed at Starbride’s heart; she was so close. “Redtrue!”

  “Hold your reins. Katya is babbling at me.”

  Starbride stiffened at the mention of Katya’s familiar name from this strange woman’s mind, but that melted away. “She’s there? Katya’s there?”

  “She sends a thousand proclamations of love and desperate pleas for your safety.”

  “Tell her I love her, too, and I’m safe.” She briefly spoke of the resistance and heard in turn Katya’s reports of building an army. “I should stay here, then, and wait for you…her?”